If you go to the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers' official website, you'll be treated to a pop-up promo to place your deposit on season tickets for the 2003-04 run.
"The Best Is Yet To Come," the pitch promises. And things can only get better after the team's strong finish couldn't overcome its losing record this season. But is the team's optimistic outlook geared more toward its fans or its new potential owners?
According to the Associated Press, AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) is in talks with at least two bidders to take over its professional sports teams.
It's easy to see why AOL would hope to rid itself of the Atlanta Braves, Hawks, and Thrashers, as it looks to work down its burdensome debt levels. Our own Bill Mann took a closer look at the sorry state of pro hockey earlier this week. Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association aren't faring much better, with just a few teams producing reasonable returns on their investments.
With teams bowing to ludicrous player salaries, and attendance, merchandising, and television contracts refusing to tag along for the ride, professional sports is rarely good business these days.
What are sports teams good for? If you're a wealthy kid at heart and want choice seats to go with an insatiable ego, you can buy a team. Just ask Dan Snyder of the Washington Redskins or Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks. Team ownership isn't a moneymaking machine. It's a vanity plate.
Now that investors are holding AOL Time Warner accountable for the parts that make up its sum, the company's hoping to unload the vanity plates Ted Turner brought to the table.
But just as Disney (NYSE: DIS) and News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) have considered selling off their California teams, investors are no longer interested in footing the bill for sluggish pursuits. Don't worry -- there will never be a shortage of rich private citizens looking to become public celebrities.
If the CEO of a publicly traded company wants to mingle with famous athletes from the comfort of the executive skybox, the advice is simple: Buy your own ticket.
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